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"The Vicar of Baghdad" to Visit PHC

Canon Andrew White, also known as “the Vicar of Baghdad,” will be speaking at Patrick Henry College at 7:00 pm on Thursday, March 16, 2017. He’s been the personal friend of Pope JohnPaul II, General Petraeus and Yassar Arafat, and held hostage negotiations with the PLO, Hamas and Daesh. This event will be held in the Barbara Hodel Student Center and is open to the public. Admission is free.

This event at Patrick Henry College is a rare opportunity to hear Cannon White’s fascinating journey and learn from one of the world’s foremost experts on Middle East reconciliation.

Canon Andrew White, former Bishop at St. George's Church in Baghdad from 2005–2014, has extensive experience with conflict mediation in Iraq and the wider Middle East. Previously, he was the President and CEO of the Foundation for Reconciliation in the Middle East, and in late 2016 founded the Canon Andrew White Ministries and Jerusalem Merit organization to provide relief and reconciliation in Jordan, Israel, Palestine and elsewhere in the region. He has written extensively about conflict resolution and has been involved in multiple hostage negotiations.

White lived and served amidst some of the most violent, protracted conflict in the world for nearly a decade. While serving in Baghdad he was held at gun point, hijacked, assaulted, kidnapped and imprisoned in a cell full of severed fingers and toes. More than 1,200 men, women and children who worshipped with him have been killed in recent years, he says. Four boys he knew were beheaded because they refused to swear allegiance to Islam. The church caretaker was forced to watch as his five-year-old son was cut in half. Despite these conditions, White grew his congregation at St. George’s from 60 to over 6,500 as the vicar of the only Anglican church in Iraq.

Also, on Tuesday, March 14, 12:20 pm, Canon White will be a guest during the Newsmakers Interview Series with Marvin Olasky in the Grand Lobby of the Hodel Campus Center. All of the Newsmaker Interviews are live-streamed on the College’s webcast page. Visit the Newsmakers page online to see the Spring 2017 Newsmaker Series line-up and to share with friends on social media. Please join us and spread the news!